Carol Of The Bells
by AriznGlori
Summary: 5 Up! After Kagome catches Inuyasha with Kikyo and accidentally tells her feelings, running home when he doesn't respond, Inuyasha tries to bring her back to the past. But will she ever feel like returning, or will she leave forever?
1. Chapter 1

Carol Of The Bells

By AriznGlori

A/N: Hark! This is a winter romance story, with a little (as in "almost not there") bit of humor. It is my _Kurisumasu-purezento _to you- as said in Japan. Well, even with my limited knowledge of Japan and an inter-linguistic dictionary in my face, I will attempt to weave a tale to make you happy for Christmas. This story will take priority for December over Blood Of The Heart and Special Effects.

Kankaku No Nai

It was very cold outside as Kagome hiked out of the well on the rope ladder, her huge pack strapped to her back like always. Kagome couldn't feel it, though. She was far too numb for a chilly breeze in the hut of the Bone-Eater's Well.

_Stupid girl! So stupid!_ a voice in her head screamed. _How could you do it? You knew the outcome all along, and you went through with it. If you had just kept your mouth shut, then nothing like this would have happened!_

"I know," she whispered to herself, tears welling in her eyes as she threw her backpack on the ground. "I knew it would happen… I _did_ know…"

She felt a burning in her throat and a shortness of breath. Her hot tears brimmed in her eyes, hanging by the ends of her long lashes, preparing to fall like fiery rain upon the bitter, uncaring ground, cold as ice as winter fell.

Long arms of chilly air were embracing the city at that very moment, and she couldn't feel it, didn't want to; sank into a dark, warm pit in the confines of her being, and mentally, she wept.

"Inuyasha…" she whispered softy to herself, not seeing her breath before her face through the blinding tears. "What will I do now?"

She didn't know how she did it, or when even, but somehow she had wandered, with her loaded pack, to the bright and cheery warmth of her home as the gray sky poured forth in freezing torrents a rain of ice to blanket the world.

Wandering through the house, she made her way upstairs, not bothering to remove her shoes at the front door like usual, but continuing to her room. Absently, she let her pack fall to the floor, and she habitually grabbed her warmest, softest pair of pajamas and went downstairs to the bathroom.

Opening the door and entering before Souta was able to beat her, Kagome grabbed a towel before locking herself in the white-tiled room. Bitterly she turned the faucet of the tub, not realizing it, still crying in her mental sanctuary. _Why did I do it?_

When the tub was full of steaming water and bubbles, she tied her hair up, slipped out of her dirty clothes, and stepped carelessly into the bath, the second one for her that day, since the hot springs with Sango... Sinking down in that blissfully burning water, she shut her eyes, her dams of sheer willpower shattering as the lachrymose reservoirs poured forth down her cheeks, unchecked, unnoticed.

The world was steam before her, and she knew nothing of what was happening, except that she held back too long, far too long. She took a deep, shuddering breath, and upon exhaling, wept loudly in the silent white sterility of the unforgiving room, the cruel walls taunting her, mimicking her cries.

_"Why dammit, why?! Why?! Why did I do it?!"_

--Hark! How the bells, sweet silver bells,

All seem to say, "Throw cares away!"--

"Why did I let her go?" Inuyasha roared at himself, mentally kicking himself. "Dammit, I let her go away!"

He blew off some steam as he stormed through the woods, punching down random trees until he made it to the well. He stopped when he reached its wooden mouth, jutting up from the ground like a dark chimney from the depths of the world. He sighed, running a hand through his silver hair.

Inuyasha gazed hatefully at the dark depths, at the gleaming bones at the bottom, and he leaned over to stare in deeper when he was kicked in the butt by a certain little fox tyke who just learned how to mask his scent. He yelped in surprise.

"Ha ha ha! I got you, Inuyasha!" The kitsune giggled, laughing and rolling around while Inuyasha, red in the face at being caught off guard by a child, rubbed his sore butt.

"Damn you, Shippo," Inuyasha growled, "if Kagome didn't like you so much I'd rip your cotton-ball of an ass into fluffy little pieces and give them to Sesshomaru!"

"Jeez, I get the point! No need to get _literal_," the kitsune pouted, crossing his arms and wagging his tale in a huff. "It's not like I don't know what's going on here."

Inuyasha blinked in surprise, for the second time in five minutes. He really didn't like it. "Y-you do?"

"Well, _duh_! I mean, it's _so_ obvious," Shippo said with a shrug and a cocky grin. "You somehow screwed up again, pissed Kagome off, and she went home, right about to cry. But, when I saw her, she was practically balling! She stopped for a little bit, but when she went down the well…I could smell the salt…"

"She was crying?!" Inuyasha wailed. "Oh Kami-sama! What in the seven hells have I _done_?!" He dug his claws into his scalp in frustration, rivers of black blood flowing down his face. "Oh… no…Dammit!" He kicked the well as hard as he could, but its magical qualities were unaffected by his strength, and his foot throbbed painfully. "DAMMIT!"

"Wow. You're _really_ worked up over this."

"It's not like the other times, though!"

"How?"

"It's…- I can't…- Well…- It's complicated!" Inuyasha huffed, a guilty ached on his chest. _I have to get her back here…The jewel shards… We need Kagome…I need…_

"I'm going to go get her, Shippo."

"Like always? Don't hit me! What I mean to _say_ is: Good. You'd better hurry, Inuyasha. It looks like snow." Shippo pointed at the iron gray sky. Inuyasha smiled, and gave the kitsune a noogie.

"Thanks Shippo." Then, in a blur of red and silver, he disappeared into the depths of the well, and vanished from Sengoku-jidai into the mists of Time.

--Christmas is here, bringing good cheer,

To young and old, meek and the bold!--

Kagome finally realized what was going on when her mother knocked on the door. "Kagome honey?"

"Yes, mom?"

"Are you okay?" her mother asked in a worried voice.

"Y-yes mom. I-I'm fine…"

"Well, can Souta use the toilet? We only have one bathroom, you know."

"O-okay…" Kagome got up, hopped over to the door, unlocked it, and then hopped back into the warm tub. She pulled shut the shower curtain, and Souta came in, did his business, washed his hands, and left. Kagome sighed again, and began to clean herself as fast as she could, for the water was losing its warmth, giving it up to the air.

As she bathed, she felt her pain wash away briefly, until this scene recalled a memory of what happened, exactly five hundred years ago.

--Ding dong ding dong! That is their song!

Ring, joyful ring! All caroling!--

"Ah, this feels so nice," Kagome said with a smile as she slid into the warm waters of the spring outside the village. "Sango, when was the last time it was so cold out? Do you remember?"

"Wasn't it last winter?" Sango said, giving Kagome one of those _are you stupid _looks.

"Really? Winter's coming so fast?" Kagome raised her eyebrows in surprise. "I thought it wasn't for another week!"

"No Kagome, you idiot!" Sango laughed at her, splashing water. "The solstice is today, you know." Sango peered up at the clouds. "It looks like about…two more hours left until night falls…"

"Really?" Kagome swam over to their pile of clothes, and peered at a watch she had recently been given by Hojo. "But it's only…three o'clock…"

"Well, then it's about an hour less…"

"Ah… I need to go talk to Inuyasha about…something…" Kagome replied, seeing Sango eye a gold glint from her clothes-pile. Kagome got out of the hot spring into the cold air, dried off with a towel, and pulled her clothes on as fast as she could. Grabbing a small, brightly wrapped parcel now uncovered, she hurried off towards the location she knew Inuyasha was usually at.

Unfortunately, he wasn't in the Goshimboku, so she now had to go and hunt him down. "He's never around when I want to find him…"

But, because of the high location of the woods and the well over the village, it was easy for her to spot the silver shine of his hair, disappearing into Kaede's hut. Kagome ran toward the village.

Drawing up to the hut, she saw Kaede leave, shaking her head and muttering about "thieving hanyous" quite loudly. "Honestly," she ranted in her old voice, "ye would think he could just _hunt_ or something…"

Then Inuyasha shot from the hut's entrance, and the smell of roasting chicken filled Kagome's nostrils. _He stole Kaede's dinner, the bastard! _

The hanyou didn't seem to see her; he was too focused on something else. He leapt over rooftops, away towards the forest. Kagome grabbed the handle-bars of her pink bicycle, which rested against Kaede's hut, and she put the parcel in the basket, and raced along after the flying demon.

On and on he led her, up hills and over creeks, until the only way Kagome could follow was on foot. She took the parcel, not risking that bandits might come through and take it.

"Where does he think _he's_ going?" Kagome grumbled irritably, but, knowing Inuyasha, it might just be an afternoon run. But it wasn't.

Watching the red and silver blur fly onwards overhead, Kagome trailed beneath the canopy of the forest, until she came to a clearing, by a large tunnel-like cave opening. And lo-and-behold, there stood Kikyo, dead eyes on the flying youth, and as he landed, she embraced him passionately, and him likewise, at least to Kagome's eyes. She stood there, on the edge of the field, watching as Kikyo took Inuyasha's face in her hands and kissedhim softly. "Kikyo, I brought some food…"

"I have a fire going in the cave," Kikyo said softly, with a smile Kagome knew was both beautiful and enchanting to the hanyou. But it wasn't a spell. It was just a smile, and Kagome could tell, and Inuyasha smiled back, although it was soft, and he walked with her towards the cave, an arm around the dead miko.

"Inuyasha…" Kagome whispered, a tear falling to the ground. She saw his ear turn towards her, and the golden flicker of his eyesflash to her, and she froze in that amber gaze, and she spoke what she knew, for a very long time.

"But I thought…We…_I love you_…." She couldn't stop herself, and she was still frozen. The parcel, red with a bright golden bow, fell from her hands, and tumbled into the clearing. Inuyasha watched, and his eyes widened.

"W-what did you say…?" But Kagome couldn't bear to repeat it. She had already given up those words.

"Do you…me too?" Kagome asked, more tears sliding soundlessly down her face. She watched him, watched his shocked face, his wide golden eyes, his mouth openly slightly, as if about to speak. But it seemed that now he was frozen; he just stood there, rigid, unmoving, unhearing, unfeeling.

She doubted he even saw her.

In a flurry of tears, she turned tail and ran, crying the whole way, back until she grabbed her bike, rode into the village, picked up her bag, and disappeared down the well, and wound up here, in the bath tub.

Kagome sighed, put her hands over her face, and massaged her temples. It was such a bad day…

--One seems to hear words of good cheer,

From everywhere, filling the air--

Inuyasha emerged in the all-too-familiar hut of the Bone-eater's Well, leaping effortlessly from the empty dark shaft to the dirt floor. It was very, very cold out; he could see his breath, misting in front of his face. He sighed, watched the mist blow, and saw Kagome's face in it.

In a frantic start, he swiped at the warm cloud, and it shredded, dissipating before his golden eyes, which he rubbed to get whatever was messing up his vision out.

"Kagome…Damn girl…making me worry…"

Inuyasha walked slowly up the stairs to the hut's door. Sliding it open, he was met with a blast of icy air. He reluctantly stepped out into the raging snow storm that was freezing the future, and into a record-breaking two feet of glistening snow.

A light on a tall post was on, illuminating the grounds of the large paved temple complex. Snow fell in thick clumps from the sky, and they fogged the light. If Inuyasha couldn't smell Kagome's sweet scent and warm house, he probably would have gotten lost.

Slowly, he trudged towards the brilliantly lit house, the lights in the windows drawing slowly nearer.

--Oh, how they pound, raising the sound,

O'er hill and dale, telling their tale!--

Kagome pulled herself out of the tub, very slowly; if she moved too fast, she felt a blood rush to her head and a vomiting sensation. Stepping out, drying with a warm, fluffy towel, she felt a little better, a little less stressed, until she had another thought: what happens if she goes back? Would Inuyasha come an get her like always? Or would he leave her in the present…?

Balling her fist, Kagome told herself in a very angry tone: "Don't worry. Stop freaking out. Things will go now as they should. Fate wouldn't do me in like this."

Breathing hard, she forced herself to move fast, pulling on her soft pajamas, and slipping into a pair of fluffy slippers. She was now prepared to go on her mission: grab the scoop, a bucket of ice cream, some hot cocoa, and the remote. Judging from the snow falling she saw out the bathroom's privacy window, there probably wouldn't be school tomorrow. Okay, now she had to go get the saddest romance movie she had and pop it in the VCR.

Going about all that, Mrs. Higurashi stared at her daughter in wonder, her motherly instincts screaming _BOY TROUBLE ALERT!_ when Kagome grabbed both Titanic and Bram Stoker's Dracula, in which both movies the main love-interest dies.

"Kagome honey?"

"Yes mom?"

"Are there any problems with Inuyasha or Miroku I should know about?"

"N-no…Miroku has Sango, and Inuyasha has…somebody… I have my own love-interest…"

"So you're over Inuyasha?"

"Y-yes, you could say that…"

"Will you be staying home more often?"

"I don't know. Shush! The title just came on…" Sure enough, the bold white word TITANIC appeared before a watery ocean-background on the TV screen, sad solovoice in the background and all.

Mrs. Higurashi sighed, shook her head, and proceeded to drag Souta, kicking and screaming, to his room to tuck him in.

Kagome, meanwhile, dug into the vat of mint-chocolate-chip, and scowled at Rose Duindicator, who was currently complaining about feeling trapped in the high-society life of the first class.

--Gaily they ring, while people sing

Songs of good cheer; Christmas is here--

Inuyasha stood there, under the eaves which sheltered the front door. On it was a lone green wreath, with a red bow with _Merry Christmas _written across it in golden stitching. It reminded the hanyou of a certain pretty parcel he picked up in the forest while following Kagome back.

Absently he pulled it out of his pocket, and held it gently, so as not to cut it open, for a tag on it read, in Kagome's delicate handwriting, _Inuyasha, open this when I bring you all over for a very special holiday!_

His gaze lifted up to the brass door knob. He twisted it gently, but it was locked. Sighing, his raised his fist to knock, a light red stain of guilt and shame flushing his face, and his ears lowered in humiliation. _It's like I'm following her home, like some mutt off the street…What will she do…?_

And so, with his stomach a lead weight, he raised his hand and knocked on the door.

--Merry, Merry, Merry, Merry Christmas,

Merry, Merry, Merry, Merry Christmas!--

Kagome sighed when she heard a knock at the font door. She glared at the window, but it didn't show the front door; but flying in the wind were strands of morphing silver, blowing with the wind, glittering in the light of the lamp pole. She froze, pausing the movie, and stared outside. The knock continued.

Standing up cautiously, walking like her mother, Kagome came to the door, and, muffling her voice asked "Yes?"

"Mrs. Higurashi?" came Inuyasha's voice, polite, timid. "I need to speak with your daughter…"

"My daughter? Why"

"W-well…She saw…something…and I need to apologize and explain it to her."

"Oh, okay. Let me get her. Kagome!"

Regular voice: "YES?"

Fake voice: "Inuyasha is here!"

Real voice: "Okay!" Then she opened the door, and stared at Inuyasha, right into his sorrowful golden eyes. "You wanted to talk?"

"Y-yes," the hanyou said with guilt, lowering his head. "I.. Well… I'm sorry you took what I did in the wrong way. It wasn't what it looked like, honest!"

"Honest? What exactly do you think I thought, Inuyasha?" Kagome pursed her looks and put her hands on her pajama-covered hips.

"Um, something bad?" Inuyasha pointed out.

"For once, you're right," Kagome muttered. "Good guess, anyway. Now leave me alone and let me get back to my movie."

"NO!" Inuyasha growled, blocking the door from slamming. "I've gone through too much damned trouble for you. Now you can sit down and listen or I'll make you. Got it?" A little bit harsher than he thought it would be it sounded good in his head, anyways.

"SIT!" SLAM! Right on bare cement, too…

"Ouch…" Inuyasha squeaked. "My larynx…"

"How do you know what a larynx is…?" Kagome asked in shock.

"Your spell books aren't that hard to read and figure out…"

"Try getting graded for it."

"For reading? Is this what all your tests are for?" Inuyasha asked, standing up. "Why don't you just come back to my time?"

"Because your time doesn't have electricity, and it's barbaric, and dangerous, and…and… People there are _ugly_!"

"Boy! Sango's gonna _love_ you!"

"Wait! Why don't you… come inside…?" Kagome beckoned.

"Will your mother mind?" Inuyasha asked with a smirk, and Kagome knew then that he wasn't fooled by her act earlier.

"Of course not. You're _Inuyasha_, and I have the 'S' word."

"Well…that's unfair…"

"Not …not really… What were you doing over with…Kikyo…?" Kagome asked, somewhat timidly.

"Oh, that," Inuyasha said with a casual toss of his hair. "I just brought her some dinner, and she told me that she would… die happy…"

"You realize she would probably have hypnotized you again and tried to drag you to hell?" Kagome viciously pointed out. "You're such a bastard, Inuyasha!" She turned around, giving him the cold shoulder.

"Look at me Kagome!" She reluctantly did."I know! I'm sorry I hurt your feelings! I heard what you said in the glade! I heard what you whispered! It was the same thing I said to Kikyo before I fell asleep, when she hit me with that arrow! Do you know that?!"

"N-no…"

"Well then, you obviously don't want to come back.I did what I came to do. I'm sorry.Good bye." He dropped the red parcel on the floor, turned heel, and left, shutting the door behind him.

--On now they send, On without end,

Their joyful tone, to every home!--

"He apologized…" A single tear, shining like a pure diamond, slid quickly down the side of her gently smiling face, and plummeted to the floor, shattering into a thousand glittering droplets.

"Inuyasha…"

End Of Chapter One

A/N: Will you review this and tell me how good I'm doing? I'll have the second chapter up on the 24th! Merry Christmas all! ("Kankaku No Nai"- emotionally frozen.) Read Blood of the Heart and Special Effects! Those are my two other stories! Kind criticism is promoted!


	2. Chapter 2

Carol Of The Bells

By AriznGlori

A/N: Merry X-mas! Here is the second part of Carol Of The Bells, my newest story. Enjoy it while it lasts! This'll be a shorter fic.

Disclaimer: I own not a single thing. Wah!

Chapter 2: Tosho Ni Kakatta

"He…apologized…" Kagome said again. "But he gave up…He isn't taking me back…" _Well, then, he must not want_ _you back…Give up and let it be… keep your jewel shards… Naraku will never find them…If you go back, there is a higher likeliness that you will die…and get all you love killed…Do you really want to risk it?_

"No…" _So stay. Let him go. He let you go, after all. Try and remember: love and loss are weaved together as one, for you only feel loss if something you love is taken or leaves… So let him go…This isn't a loss, but a challenge to make you better! You can get on without them all…Just let go of it…Let the past be the past…those you know in Sengoku-jidai have already lived their lives and died out. Miroku and Sango are already dead…_

"No…" _They are. You are a stranger in a past that might not even be relevant to the present. For all you know, this might be what you were supposed to do. Fate doesn't deal out what isn't needed…your part in this tale is over…Let them live it out…Let them die…_

"How can I do that? How can I leave all that I know and love, all the past of the world, behind like that? It seems so hard…" _But it is the right thing to do…_Sighing in mental frustration, Kagome threw herself onto the couch, sinking into the warm softness, filling her nostrils with the fragrance of…mint chocolate chip?

"Ah! No!" Kagome had knocked over her half-melted vat, and the ice cream spilt onto the couch, and soaked in. "Damn my miserable luck! Damn, damn, damn!" Kagome burst into tears of frustration; this was the last straw.

--Hark, how the bells, sweet silver bells,

All seem to say, "Throw cares away!"--

Inuyasha landed in the past, back in the time Kagome called "Sengoku-jidai." He snorted in anger at what just happened, glaring with utmost hatred at the iron sky, as if it was the cause of this mess. Damning his horrible love-life, he leapt, in one bound of terrifying fury, to the Goshimboku tree, landing lightly in the branches, where he reclined, trying to think. But he couldn't; no matter what position he put himself in, it was always uncomfortable. He finally burst his fury in one loud "SHIT" before punching his fist through a thin branch, sending it flying into the air, landing over a hundred feet away.

"Why the hell can't I think about this?!" he growled. "I can't focus, I can't clear my head! Hell, I can't even sit comfortably! Why the hell is it always _me _who gets this kind of shit? Why, Kami-sama, do you enjoy torturing me so?!" he screamed at the sky, no one listening except the snow flakes.

In his anger, he felt a deep hollowness in his chest, and he suddenly realized that Kami had turned away, not choosing to answer, and the hollowness seemed to be pulling his ribs in on themselves, and his chest felt a great burning pain. He clutched the muscle above the area of plaguing nothingness, and felt like Miroku's hellhole entered his heart. It was as if his fury was eating him from the inside out.

He glared hatefully upon himself, looking inwards towards his gray soul, not white like a human's nor black like a demon's; just a gray, neutral stirring inside of him that felt nothing, that wasn't helping him, and he knew then that he and his soul were very separate, and that he was a doomed animal, cursed as anything could be, and the rage that ate at him was staining his soul all the darker, and he could see Hell's seven levels rising before him, and a horrid book keeper at the red-hot iron gates, and he knew that the quill in that thing's hand was about to list his name. He knew he was smiling dementedly when he saw himself waiting in a long line, extending onwards, forever. A horridly ironic bliss…

Stopping himself, he managed to get his wits under control, and he felt now how hard his heart was racing, and with a gentle will he slowed it down to normal; he felt that he could think again.

"Inuyasha, breathe," he said to himself. ""It's okay, just don't lose control. Don't let yourself go…" He clutched the hilt of Tetsusaiga just in case, and he knew now that he had just risked going into his full-demon form, just by his blind rage. But his human half was strong enough to get him back under control…

"What happened? Why am I here? She said a few insignificant words and ran. And I couldn't bring myself to drag her back…Why?" Inuyasha sat there, thinking intensely, until he realized he was numb, covered with snow. It was very dark out, even for his eyes. He couldn't even begin to recall any thoughts he had, for, in that whole time, nothing came to him; nothing at all.

He really needed help.

-- Christmas is here, bringing good cheer,

To young and old, meek and the bold--

"Kaede!" The hanyou said with relief, landing next to the lantern-bearing old woman in the middle of a village street. "I'm so glad I found-" And his face was met by a great iron pot that Kagome had given to the old woman for Christmas, and Inuyasha fell to the ground in a pained daze. Kaede grabbed him by the throat.

"Bastard! Ye stole my chicken!" the old woman roared. "How dare ye break into my home and take my din-"

"It was for Kikyo!" the hanyou protested against the verbal onslaught. "Jeez, that was all I needed to give her and she'd leave forever!"

"A black pot such as this gives food a certain spiritual imbalance, just enough to give the meat a gray hue, grayer than it should be. This impure meat, when blended with certain herbs and arranged in such a way deep within the Earth, creates a direct portal to Hell that can be opened briefly. She was going to take your ass to Hell and let ye _fry_ with her." The woman gave one of those _you really are dumb! You don't pay any attention _looks.

"I got the point when Kagome said-"

"Not another Kagome problem! Ye honestly have no life if all ye talk about is her! Ye must really love-" Her mouth was suppressed by a clawed hand. "Shhh!"

"Mwuphab bwilphas-" the old woman mumbled as Inuyasha dragged Kaede into a tiny alley between two huts. Sango walked by, singing along with a song on a pair of head-phones, also from Kagome. She didn't seem to hear a thing.

__

"She had me feelin' like she's ready to blow! She said baby let's go! And I moved and I said Yeah! Uh-huh! It's Sango! It's yer birtday! It's yer birtday! Uh-huh! _She get down up, Come and get me! Yeah!_" She did a little groove, snapping her fingers and shaking her hips; Miroku's head popped out of a nearby hut. A feminine voice inside queried "Miroku-kun? Are we done?"

"Ugh," Inuyasha grunted, rolling his eyes as the monk pursued the girl down the street. "Nimrods, the lot of them," he cursed. He turned his attention back the old woman.

"Help me, Kaede! Please…"

-- Christmas is here, bringing good cheer,

To young old, meek and the bold!--

"He's a bastard," Kagome muttered, beginning the process of hardening her heart. "He's cruel, uncouth, far from suave, horrible table manners, can't treat girls right, is pig-headed, mean, and over all, I HATE INUYASHA!" She felt liberated, and the whiteness of the soul within her pulsated, and she shone with an outer radiance of victory over an inner battle.

I don't have to go back," she said, satisfied and peaceful for the first time in months. "They all can get along without me. Inuyasha's gotten better with Tetsusaiga, and it'll transform if he defends Miroku and Sango. So, in all reality, I should have left long ago. I really _don't_ need to deal with this. I'm totally alright. _Totally_."

With a great smile on her face, Kagome set off for her bed, every memory of Inuyasha fading before her eyes. As she slipped under her warm covers that night, she felt a strange draining sensation, and she had trouble remembering how to spell "Sango."

-- Ding dong ding dong! That is their song!

Ring, joyful ring! All caroling!--

"Inuyasha! Ye are the biggest idiot I have ever seen! You did that? No wonder Kagome went home crying! Don't ye know how she feels about ye?" Kaede ranted, pacing back and forth in her hut, illuminated by the light of a small fire.

"W-well…n-not up until just…just recently…" Inuyasha said in a daze. "I thought she was always too busy going out with…Hobo…"

"Well," Kaede sighed, sitting down on the matted floor, "That _is _an understandable mistake…"

"But I don't get it!" Inuyasha simmered, crossing his arms angrily and scowling. "This will drive me nuts before the end… I just know it…"

"Well, even ye cannot deny that ye heard her confession…" Kaede sympathized, getting up and walking over to the confused hanyou. She then slapped him across the face, hard.

"Yeow! What the hell was _that _for?!"

"For being the most thick-headed creature in existence, that's what!" Kaede scolded. "If ye want to fix the situation, ye need to go and talk to Kagome about it…And be gentle; she is strong, but frail."

"I already tried that," the hanyou murmured angrily. "She sat me and yelled at me, and I left."

"Somehow I get the feeling that ye are trying to make it seem as though she persecuted ye and ye are the victim…" the old woman said dryly.

Inuyasha huffed. "Well, I yelled at her to listen and she sat me and then I returned the present she gave me and now I'm here talking to you, and-"

"ENOUGH! GET YE BIG FAT WHINING ASS OUT OF MY HUT OR I'LL HAVE MIROKU EXORCISE YE!" Kaede bellowed, most _un_-old-woman-like. Inuyasha fled from that hut, and shot through the icy bitterness of the gray sky, disappearing into the forest.

--One seems to hear words of good cheer,

From everywhere, filling the air!--

"Kagome, I'm very worried now," Mrs. Higurashi murmured as she walked silently into her daughter's room. She sat down on the edge of the bed, and sighed, running a motherly hand over her sleeping daughter's cheek and up over her forehead. It was burning hot.

"Kagome?" she queried, gently shaking her daughter awake. "Kagome, are you okay?"

"Hmm? What? Oh, good morning, mother; I'm feeling fine. Honest," Kagome said with a smile as she saw her mother's concerned face.

"No, you are not!" Mrs. Higurashi said bitingly. "you're sick! Stay right here. It's time for some chicken ramen and Pepto-Bismol."

"What?!" Kagome sat in bed, horrified. "But that always makes me _vomit! _Are you trying to kill me?!"

"No, of course not. You have a fever, and it's probably because of that jumbo-ice cream binge you went on last night. Plus, you didn't even finish your movies. Something is _really _bothering you."

"Well, Inuyasha _was _bothering me, but I don't quite care anymore. In fact, I can't even recall why I was so mad! Wow! I feel liberated!"

"No you don't."

"Yes I do."

"_No_; you don't."

"But I do!"

"Kagome…" her mother warned.

"Alright, alright… I'm not fine. You are so nosy…"

"A mother's duty…" Mrs. Higurashi said with a smile, getting up and walking away. "Get some sleep. Rest. It's too cold out for you to go to school."

"I knew it would be canceled!"

"Well, that's all fine and dandy. Get some rest, or I'll ground you."

"Evilness…"

--Oh, how they pound, raising the sound,

O'er hill and dale, telling their tale!--

Inuyasha stared at the dark depths of the well, and he sniffed the breeze gusting up through it. It smelt even colder than in Sengoku-jidai.

"What are you doing?" he asked, gazing at the pit. "What on earth are you doing?" Sighing, he turned around, and leapt to the Goshimboku tree, where he sat in the branches shielded from the ice and wind, and proceeded to think again.

"Okay… well, if Kagome doesn't…doesn't… Ah hell! I _still _can't think! What am I, cursed?"

"Yup!" Shippo said, popping out of a group of leaves, giving Inuyasha such a fright that he fell out of the tree.

"Boy Inuyasha, you sure are out of it!"

"What would a runty kitsune know about this?"

"Well, if Kagome doesn't want to listen, make her see."

"Huh? See what?"

"That you're sorry, of course!" Shippo declared. "I don't know, maybe get her some chocolates or something! Preferably, a chocolate-covered candy cane!"

"Okay, now what is all this And where can I find it?"

"Umm…I haven't gotten that far, actually. I thought I'd get kicked out of the tree before I got to this point."

"Well now, there's a good idea!" Inuyasha then booted the fox tyke out of the tree, and leapt as fast as he could towards the well.

--Gaily they ring, while people sing,

Songs of good cheer, Christmas is here!--

Landing inside the hut of the well, five hundred years into the future, Inuyasha peered through the sliding door, glancing around the grounds of the temple. No one was outside. Stepping out into the snow-bound city, he leap away from the grounds, and into a busy street, congested with people, and giant metal objects hurtling around like dangerous demons.

The people around him were staring at him, and he realized that in bright red, he stuck out like a sore thumb. Lights flashed behind invisible walls, people pushed past him, and the metal demons cried in harsh voices, and people got in and out them, and the smoke filled his lungs, and the snow was suffocating, and the noise, and the air, and the lights, and the people--

"HOLY SHIT! WHERE THE HELL AM I?!"

-- Merry merry merry merry Christmas,

Merry merry merry merry Christmas!--

Kagome was bored. B-O-R-E-D bored. She was so bored that she got into a pleasant conversation with Souta. Man, was she desperate for un-bored. Gathering a thick, fuzzy blanket over her shoulders and slipping into a pair of fuzzy pink slippers she often denied owning, Kagome hobbled down to the living room, and peered outside at the thick blanket of snow. She sighed happily, until she realized that she was stuck home with Souta…until the snow was cleared…and she would have to be…be…be… NICE!

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

-- On now they send, on without end,

Their joyful tone, to every home!--

Sango sat with Miroku in Kaede's hut, looking at each other with matching unsurprised faces. "He did it again," they said in unison.

"Kaede," Sango said, looking over at the old woman, "what did he do now?"

"He was bringing Kikyo dinner and Kagome saw."

"IDIOT! It was with the black pot Kagome brought, wasn't it?"

"No. He left the pot, but took the chicken stewing in it."

"Oh. That's part of the 'Hell-spell,' right?" Miroku questioned.

"Aye… sometimes that boy is so stupid…"

"Don't we all know…"

End of Chapter 2

A/N: Sorry for the very late update! This took a little longer than I thought it would. Please note that the sudden appearance of humor was…needed…The stuff I got into in the first chapter started to give me nightmares…Oh well. I'm liking the slight turn in plot this one is taking…Maybe it'll be a shorter, bittersweet story. Oh well. Like it or no? Tell me! On a scale of 1 to 5, how would you rate the direction this one is going in? I really don't know if I like this one or not… ; Tell me, okay?


	3. Chapter 3

Carol Of The Bells

By AriznGlori

A/N: Thankyouthankyouthankyou! All your reviews were great! I feel so loved! Here you go! Read on! Beware: more plot, and the bad silliness is basically what might happen during such a time…please be understanding. HAPPY NEW YEAR! HAPPY NEW YEAR! HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Disclaimer: I own this story at least…

Chapter 3: Gin No Beru

"Whoa," Inuyasha said in pleasant surprise, passing by a see-through wall with mannequins wearing skimpy underwear. "Where _am _I?" Inuyasha realized he was staring only when an old woman walking by muttered "_Hentai" _under her breath. He then quickly strolled through away down the street with the crowd, but couldn't help wondering if Kagome wore such…such… _alluring_ underwear… SLAP!

"Dear Kami," he murmured in shock, "I'm turning into Miroku…"

He glanced back at the name of the shop. "Victoria's Secret. What an odd name for a local store. Who do I know named 'Victoria?' Hmm… no one… Well, that was pleasantly easy." Inuyasha then caught sight of a giant sign with colors running over it, showing more women in skimpy clothes, only now they were singing odd lyrics to an even odder music. One had really short hair, and the other's was the size of Kaede's hut!

_"Hi Hi Puffy Ami Yumi Show! Hi Hi Puffy Ami Yumi Show!"_

"What has become of the world?!" Inuyasha cried in frustration.

"Shut up, you freak!" a random passerby said.

"WHO SAID THAT? I'LL KICK YOU'RE A-"

"Go back to New York!"

-- Hark! How the bells, sweet silver bells,

All seem to say, throw cares away!--

"I'm bored," Shippo grumbled, sitting in Inuyasha's spot in the snow-covered Goshimboku tree. "Without Inuyasha to bug, it gets pretty boring around here…" Just then, Sango came along beneath him, dancing like a nut again, and with Miroku quietly following; she was unaware of the monk's presence.

"But," Shippo murmured to himself happily, "with such idiots like those two around, life might just pick up a better pace. After all, they can't cut me up and give me to Sesshomaru now, can they?" And so, with an evil grin and some leaves in his hands Shippo hopped away, prepared to do some devilry upon the unsuspecting humans.

Sango was completely oblivious to the world, lost in a world of music that Kagome called 'Amerkiss R&B' or something, and her new favorite artist was now Usher. "Damn," Sango muttered, listening to another song. "This one is so soul-touching..." Miroku lurking after her, watched as she began to start singing, quite loudly and badly: _"Just let it burn, let burn…"_

"Okay…. Now it's getting freaky," Miroku frowned. "Ever since Kagome got you that stupid music box and the shiny disc things, you've not been paying attention to me… Well Sango, I'll find a way to get you back to your normal state…."

_"These are my confessions…something about getting her pregnant, la la la…_ Oh my God! He got another girl pregnant!" Sango whipped out a plastic case and pulled out a booklet of photos of the singer. "Oh, he's so exotic…Damn! Look at those _abs!_"

"Kami-sama, I swear not to bed another woman if you give me Sango…and keep her horrible singing to yourself…Amen…"

-- Christmas is here, bringing good cheer,

To young and old, meek and the bold!--

"Damn him!" The dead miko roared as she stormed through the snowy woods. "Damn him and his escapes! How could he leave me to eat that whole chicken by myself? I'll make him pay… That was the worst dinner I ever had…And Hell is waiting for us! Kaede…I must see Kaede…She knows where Inuyasha is! She knows…"

With that, the priestess turned her deadly eyes on the smoky halo above the horizon, where just beyond lay her village, tranquil and snow-bound… Oddly, Kikyo shivered, and not like the shivers of a living human. In her lack of life, her limbs shook and convulsed horrendously, creaking like the limbs of a spider. The cold was getting to her…

"I must get into a warm hut before I freeze…I might shatter…like cheap pottery…" Kikyo bit her lip in frustration. Her teeth sank in deep, but no blood came forth; when she was resurrected, she lost it all to the reopening of her wound. Kikyo cursed her horrible luck; no blood meant she needed soul-power, life-essence in its purest form to keep her moving…

"Why have I become this way? Why am I so cursed? What did I do to deserve this fate? Why am I bound to this world when I need only to relinquish my soul and rest forever?" For the first time since she was remade, Kikyo collapsed in a shuddering heap in the snow, and there, on the white blanket of ice, she wept, wept for her resurrection, wept for the cursed life she bore, the cursed life she had, the loss of Inuyasha, the hate toward Inuyasha, the great rending of her soul between her reincarnation and herself. If only she had the rest of her soul back… She pulled out her piece of the Shikon Jewel, and looked at it, watched it shimmer in rainbow color, watched it shine in the pale light of the winter sun, veiled in the gray sky.

She knew then what she had to do.

"Kagome…I hate her…" Pulling herself together, Kikyo hobbled off, making her way slowly toward the village of her birth, and toward the life she lost, and the life she would take back.

--Ding dong ding-dong, that is their song,

Ring joyful ring, all caroling!--

"Got any eights?" Kagome asked, depressed, looking across the coffee table in the living room at her brother.

"No…" Souta said, moving his hand of cards around to keep Kagome's taller view off of what he had. "Go fish, sis."

"I hate this game," Kagome grumbled, pulling out a seven. She now had ten cards in her hand, and yet she lacked a single pair. Souta however, had only three. He giggled and watched her, eyes full of laid-back confidence. He enjoyed watching her struggle. He then asked, "Got any sevens?" Kagome snorted, tossing him the card. Souta laid the pair down and asked again. "Do you have any kings?"

"I hate this game."

"Kagome…" Souta frowned.

"Umm…" Kagome started to put her cards behind her back.

"Mom, Kagome's cheating!"

"Tattle-tale!" Kagome stuck her tongue out at her little brother and threw the card on the table. Souta laid down his last pair.

"I win! The boat sank and the big fish ate you!"

"You realize that was corny, don't you?" Kagome glared, throwing her cards at her little brother.

"Wanna play again?" Souta grinned, gathering up the cards and putting them in the deck.

"I'll tell you what: hand me the deck and I'll show you where to shove it!"

"Mom, get the Advil! Kagome's delirious!"

"Coming!" answered Mrs. Higurashi.

"Ah! No! Mom, I'm fine! Honestly! The Pepto-Bismol made me feel all better!" Kagome wailed, scratching the back of her head and grinning nervously.

"That doesn't work for head aches!" Kagome's mother strolled into the room with a kind smile on her face. She knelt down next to her daughter, who sat cross-legged on the floor, draped in a thick warm blanket. "Do you want to talk about something?"

"Not-" Mrs. Higurashi took the opportunity to shove two pills into Kagome's mouth, empty a water bottle in her mouth, and made the girl swallow.

"How about now?" she asked innocently.

"Mom, I'm gonna be high as a kite if you keep this up," Kagome gasped.

"Better healthy than sick. Do you know how cold it is outside? I have to go shovel. Your grandfather will have to cook, okay? Kagome, if he asks for your help, only cook your own food. We don't want a houseful of sick teens now, do we?" Mrs. Higurashi stood up, went to the coat closet, and put on her winter gear before grabbing a shovel and heading out into the still-snowing storm to begin the enormous task of shoveling routes for bikes and pedestrians over the temple grounds.

"Good luck, Mom!" Kagome called, worried now that her mother had to do this task all alone. Usually it was Souta, Kagome, and her that did it. Now, two-thirds of the force was down and out; Souta faked a fever to get out of doing anything. Kagome glared at him.

"I can't believe you're letting her go out there alone…"

"Hey, you got yourself sick, and I did the same," Souta answered simply.

"But mine's different!"

"I know. You were binging because Inuyasha made you cry again. God Kagome, you can be so sensitive sometimes."

As you all can guess, Kagome was using all her mental willpower to keep herself from throttling Souta. In fact, she had to force herself to be nice again just to calm down.

"Can we play Uno?"

"But I stink at that."

"Well, I stunk at Go-fish, so you can pacify me, can't you?"

"Well, right now I want to go play video games." Souta got up to go to the TV.

"Sit boy!" Kagome stood up suddenly and yelled at him, incredibly loudly as well. Souta watched her blankly, looking at her with a sideways glance.

"You really are as high as a kite. What do I look like, a dog?"

-- One seems to hear, words of good cheer,

From everywhere, filling the air!--

"Look mommy! It's Santa Claus!" Inuyasha was browsing through a random store, looking for chocolate-covered candy canes, when a little boy pointed at him and started yelling excitedly. Inuyasha looked at him, annoyed.

"Kid, I'm not Santa Claus," Inuyasha muttered. "I don't know what the Hell a Santa Claus is!"

"Well, you brushed your hair, shaved, changed your clothes and used anti-wrinkle cream, but I can still recognize you," the boy said smartly. His mother looked at Inuyasha with an _I'm-so-sorry-but-please-play-along-while-I-shop _face. The boy ran to Inuyasha and hugged him tightly around the knees, nearly knocking him over.

"Santa, you lost weight!" Another little girl came over to Inuyasha and jumped on his back. "Hey, you've got pretty hair! Did you straighten it like my mommy does?"

"Hey Santa! Did you shave your beard?!" another little boy came over and grabbed Inuyasha by the arm, pulling and swinging on him. "Gee, you're working out, aren't you?"

"Dear Kami, why have you forsaken me?!" Inuyasha wailed as several more little children tackled him to the floor, and he was buried. "Dear goodness! What'll I do?! What'll I do?! Kagome will kill me if I kill them!" A desperate employee now forced Inuyasha to sit on a chair in an empty aisle and listen to the brats talk about things he knew nothing of. He was forced to wear an itchy red and white hat, and wear itchy fuzzy white shoes that felt like a distant relative's coat…

The first girl sat on his knee. "Santa, I want a Barbie, a pony, a teddy bear, a dress, a tea party, a car, a castle, a pool, my own country, a dragon… Hey Santa! You look cool!"

The first boy did as well. "Santa, I want Halo 2, an X-Box, a Nintendo Game Cube, a PSP, the Lord Of The Rings movies…Wow! You look like my older brother…"

Then there was a random teenage girl, quite cute the hanyou had to admit, and she clung to him desperately. "Santa, I want you for Christmas… Here's my number…" She slipped a piece of paper in his shirt. Inuyasha grinned at her, and she kissed him on the cheek, and then ran over to a gaggle of girls standing in an adjoining aisle. They all got in line.

Inuyasha sighed after they all left. He was never going to find a chocolate-covered candy cane at this rate… too many damned distractions…Why the Hell did Shippo have to say that particular item? Couldn't he have said a twig or something?

"Damn Kagome…so picky sometimes…why the hell did it have to be so specific?" Helpless to all these people, he realized that the only way to get out of there was to fight, and so he launched himself right out of the store before the next child could sit on his lap. He smashed right through the window, ran up the glass side of a building across the street, back flipped off the top, then landed five blocks from the store on a lamp post. The crowd beneath him stared in silent amazement.

"D-does anyone know where I can…find some…chocolate-covered candy canes?" Everyone pointed at a sweets shop right next to him. Inuyasha nodded, apologized, and leapt down onto the sidewalk amid some applause, which scared him horribly, and then into the store full of gawking fat people.

Grabbing everything in his immediate reach, he turned and left, while the man behind the counter screamed at him: "I thought I told you to go back to New York!"

-- Oh, how they pound, raising the sound,

O'er hill and dale, telling their tale!--

Sango cursed at the headphones vehemently. "Why, damn it, why? Why won't you play more music? Why do you keep Usher from me?!" Sighing in defeat at the lack of response from the head phones, she pulled out the CD case, pulled out the booklet with the pictures, and stared at the eight-pack photo for a long time, while Miroku maneuvered around in the bushes behind her, looking for a way to get rid of the extra batteries he had taken out of Sango's pocket while she did a strange waving motion. He looked around, and, seeing Sango too involved with the electronic gizmo, decided to run for it.

Bolting for the village, Miroku managed to get far enough that he was out of ear-reach of Sango when he crashed into a large wooden post that mysteriously popped out of nowhere. Knocked backwards, he dropped a small plastic baggie that held in it several spare batteries and the directions for the headphones.

"Ouch…"

"Well well, look who ran into my post," Shippo frowned, sitting in a nearby tree. "You might have dented it…"

Miroku looked sidelong at the post, a tall, beat-up looking splinter in the ground. "What on Earth do you want from a poor monk, Shippo? I really don't have time to play right now."

"Of course. Just with Sango…" the kitsune murmured, eyes welling up. He looked at Miroku with large puppy eyes. "Can I see the bag? I promise not to break anything…"

The monk sighed comically. "Perverted and ambitious as I am, I seem to have a large soft spot for children." Miroku held out the bag, and Shippo leapt down to get it. He then leapt easily back up into his spot, and laughed maniacally. "Hahaha! Well now, what shall I do with these? Give them to Sango and tattle…?"

"NO!" Miroku begged. "Please Shippo! Don't do it! She'll hurt somebody!"

"I know!" the kitsune cackled evilly. In a flurry of orange, Shippo made it to Sango, held out the bag, and said, "I wanted to give them back…"

"YOU TOOK AWAY MY ABILITY TO LISTEN TO AND LOVE USHER! I'M GONNA-"

Ah!" Shippo ran off, Sango on his heals. "Sango, you're pretty, and beautiful, and-"

"Don't patronize me you little thief!" Sango caught up to him, and Shippo cowered in her shadow, a quaking ball of fur. "Go on…" Sango said regally, tossing her hair.

-- Gaily they ring, while people sing,

Songs of good cheer, Christmas is here!--

"Kaede," Kikyo murmured, shuffling into the hut of the old woman. Kaede, who was enjoying a chicken leg from the pot, quickly hid the mass of meat behind her back.

"Ah, my sister!" She said in happy shock. "How have ye been? I heard Inuyasha gave you a chicken for din-"

"It was the worst meal I had by myself in a long time," Kikyo hissed angrily. "Where is she?"

"Who?" Kaede asked, looking nervously upon her older sister.

"Don't you fool around with me, Kaede!" Kikyo roared, grabbing her little sister by the throat. "You know perfectly well _who_!" She hoisted the old woman into the air. Pulling back one flickering fist, she hissed, "I can purify or destroy anything, Kaede, even you. Now please tell me!"

"Sister, I know not of whom ye speak! Little do I remember of ye habits and methods! I am old, and need reminders. Please don't send me to Hell!"

Kikyo blinked in surprise, and peered closely at Kaede. "You really _don't _know," Kikyo whispered in awe. She set Kaede down, laughing in slight hysteria. "Dear Kami, I think this is very funny! Wow! Kaede, you old goat, you're such a fool. Hahaha! Come on, little sis, laugh with me! Wahaha!"

"Wahaha?" Kaede laughed nervously. _Someone I know belongs in Ye Old Nut House…_

"Where's Kagome?"

"Ye are after her again?" Kaede gasped. "But, what if she steals back- Why, I believe she lives at the bottom of the Bone-eater's Well."

"She lives in a well?" Kikyo obviously didn't believe it.

"No," Kaede said with a nervous laugh. "The well is a portal to her own world, where all the bones go."

"Well, that does make sense," Kikyo agreed. "But if you're wrong, I'll make you pay. I'm going to Hell anyway, so I have nothing to lose…"

"Except your- Well Kikyo, have a good time in the future!" Kikyo then turned to leave the hut. "Let me know what becomes of the temple! Oh! And if I get married to a handsome man!"

"You are fifty-nine years old. You're never getting married," Kikyo said shortly as she left.

"Well, if ye were any less rude, Inuyasha might have still loved ye," Kaede sighed when Kikyo was gone. She picked up an ugly walkie-talkie Kagome brought for communications when she was in the future; it was another Christmas present. She flicked the switch to the 'on' position, and spoke into the speaker.

"Kagome, beware. Kikyo is coming. I repeat, Kikyo is coming. She is going to kill ye. Get away. Doom is coming to the future! She wants her soul back, Kagome! Get away…"

-- Merry merry merry merry Christmas!

Merry merry merry merry Christmas!--

"Damn this…" Inuyasha grumbled as he landed in the temple grounds with half the candy-store in his arms. Behind him, loud sirens were blaring, and blue and red lights flashing as several strange-colored demons came hurtling along the road after him. He saw Mrs. Higurashi, way across the grounds. As long as she was busy tossing snow around with that odd paddle, he could talk to Kagome uninterrupted. He came to the front door, and knocked.

"Kagome," Souta said, looking over at his B-O-R-E-D sister. "Did you hear a knock?"

"Yes. Answer it."

"Okay lazy…"

"Get your butt to the door before I barf on you."

"I'm going, I'm going!" Souta got up, went to the door, and opened it.

"Hi," said Inuyasha, looking down at Souta. "I need to talk to Kagome… Could you get her…? And leave?" Souta's eyes welled up and grew to the size of saucers when he saw the glass counter full of cakes and the baskets full of candy canes. "I got her chocolate, and candy canes…"

"AWESOME! Kagome, Inuyasha's here with lots of sugar!"

"He brought Shippo?" Kagome came up to the door, and stared at Inuyasha angrily. "I wanted Shippo, not you. Go away."

"But- I brought you a whole bunch of candy!" Inuyasha protested. "You don't know what I've been through today!"

"I don't care!" Kagome couldn't keep her eyes off all the food though, and Inuyasha noticed.

"Kagome, I'm very sorry, and-"

"Yeah yeah, we've been through all this. Inuyasha, you must really want me to get fat if you brought all this. What did you do, rob that 'American Sugar' store a few blocks down?"

"Umm…Yes…?" Inuyasha's ears flattened and he stared shamefully at the ground. "Shippo said…."

Just then, the police arrived at the temple. They were yelling as they ran up the flight of steps to the house.

"YOU ROBBED A CANDY SHOP!" Kagome screamed. "Take all this stuff back down the well to the past before they think I took it, or worse, they _see _you! What if they find out about you?!"

"Umm, I really am sorry…" Suddenly, a loud buzzing noise came from inside.

"Hang on, Inuyasha, Kaede's calling." Kagome darted away up to her room, from which the loud buzzing came on the one-way walkie-talkie. Kagome brought it down for her and Inuyasha to hear, while the first cop came up the long flight, gasping.

"I thought you'd want to hear," Kagome said angrily as Inuyasha gave her a confused look. She flipped on the receiving mode. Between bursts of static caused by a message sent from the distant past and replaying itself over and over, Kagome and Inuyasha discerned a terrifying message.

_"Kagome, beware. Kikyo is coming. I repeat, Kikyo is coming. She is going to kill ye. Get away. Doom is coming to the future! She wants her soul back, Kagome! Get away." _Then the message ended. Kagome glared hard at Inuyasha. "This is all your fault. Now she's going to kill us…"

The police reached them. "Freeze where you are!" They held the two up at gunpoint.

"Inuyasha, you've ruined my life!" Kagome cried as they were taken from the front door and put in handcuffs. "I hate you! Go away! Forever! You hear me?! FOREVER!"

The silver tinkling sound of the handcuffs on her wrists rang hollowly in Inuyasha's head, like a bell signaling his own funeral, and he felt so angry and hated now that he did not even fight back when it was his turn for handcuffs. Souta looked at him as though waiting for the hanyou to break free, but Inuyasha could care less. He felt his soul dying, and he didn't notice that he was being led down the flight of stone stairs to the street, where a small group of pedestrians had gathered to see what was going on. _I've lost it all. I've lost my love, my dignity, my life, my trust, my brother, my father, my mother, the Shikon No Tama, and my Kagome…My Kagome…_

"My Kagome…" he whispered as the cop held him down to the police car, and slapped the icy cuffs upon his wrists. Souta ran to the top of the stone flight and looked down upon them, and yelled, "Inuyasha, break free! Save Kagome! Save yourself! Please! My mom won't be happy about this at all! Go back to the well, Inuyasha! What are you waiting for?!"

"My Kagome."

-- On now they send, on without end,

Their joyful tone, to every home!--

"What about my eyes?" Sango asked the blushing Shippo. "What do you think of my eyes?"

"Are they pink, green, or brown?" Shippo asked, peering at Sango's oddly beautiful eyes. "They look too pretty to be real…"

"Oh! You're so sweet!" Sango giggled, pinching the kitsune's cheeks; they were now as raw and red as two apples. "And what about my smile?"

"It's best when you laugh with Miroku. _With_, not at him. Then, it's cruel and ugly…" Shippo muttered, hoping not to get his cheeks pinched again.

"Well, I _could _do that a little more…" She sighed as Miroku came up to her, right on a timed cue.

"Hello Lady Sango." Miroku sat down next to her in the snow, both of them leaning against the stone-and-wood rim of the Bone-eater's Well. "How is your conversation with the fox-thief going?"

"Well, he's buttered me up so much that I might not have to give him to Sesshomaru for punishment; but, I guess he could pay up some more." Sango pinched another cheek for good measure. Shippo whined, voice pain-filled. "You know, he sort of sounds like a girl…"

"Yes, I do know that."

"You didn't do anything _perverted _with him, did you?" Sango said suspiciously, hugging Shippo to her chest and scooting away from the monk. "You're not the first incarnation of Michael Jackson are you?"

"Who is Michael Jackson?"

"A child molester in Kagome's time. He's really famous because he walked on the moon or something…"

"No, I've never molested a girl or boy in my entire life! I am a holy man." Sango looked at him sidelong with a _quit-saying-bullshit-and-fess-up-like-a-real-man _expression. "Honest, Sango! Well, except for you of course…"

"What about that little girl who was younger than Kagome?" Sango pointed out jealously.

"Lady Sango, that young girl came down on me. I have no fowl or dirty attempts to her," Miroku said, most _un_-monk-like, looking at Sango with wide eyes.

__

"Hentai!" A resounding SLAP rang through the air, and Miroku fell over, laughing at Sango while clenching his red face.

"Honest to Kami-sama, Lady Sango, I haven't touched her, or vice versa. I was only joking."

"Holy men don't joke," Sango grumbled, picking up Hiraikotsu and beginning to walk away, much to Shippo's relief as he bounded off in freedom, crying happily as he ran towards the village. "Thank Kami!" he cried. "I'm free! Free at last!"

Just then, Kikyo emerged from the opposite side of the clearing, catching both Miroku and Sango off guard. They turned and faced her in shock.

"Lady Kikyo!" Miroku exclaimed. "Why are you here?!"

"I'm here to reclaim what is mine," the miko replied simply, starting to go towards the well. Miroku immediately was there to block her.

"You must stay away from the well," Miroku warned, holding out a scroll. "It is terribly dangerous for one in your condit- AHHH!" Kikyo, in her impatience, had grabbed the neck of the monk, and blasted a cold wave of purifying magic through him. He fell to the ground, unconscious, skin hot and smoking.

"Miroku!" Sango cried, staring sadly at the monk. Her face hardened in blind anger. "Kikyo," she hissed, turning her eyes upon the calm priestess. "I will shatter you like the cheap pottery you are! Die!" Launching Hiraikotsu at the dead miko, Sango pulled out her sword and ran after the boomerang, preparing to follow up the first attack with a few sword strokes.

Kikyo, however, summoned a soul collector, and the boomerang ricocheted ff its scaly side, backwards into Sango, flinging her into the wide trunk of the Goshimboku, to which she had to fly through several small trees and bushes over a very long distance. The boomerang's two radiating arms embedded themselves in the tree's trunk, and Sango was saved only by the fact that she was luckily in the spot where Hiraikotsu's arms spread out and back, and she was only barely able to escape being completely cut in two. Gasping, she dropped her sword, trying to catch her breath.

It was so hard, so difficult when her own weapon was suffocating her, holding her against this tree to which, it seemed, so many have been bound and killed… Kikyo stood in front of her, eyes cold and glittering, and a glittering arrow drawn against the string of a strong bow, sharpened, flickering tip aimed at the girl's heart. Sango stopped struggling. She stared back at Kikyo, trying to keep calm; Kikyo looked back, eyes unfeeling, no emotion held inside her.

"I could kill you," She said, lowering her bow. "I could send the shaft of this arrow so far into the tree that it would have passed right through you." Lovingly, her cold fingers caressed the soft brown fletching of the arrow. "But isn't it amazing? You remind me of someone very special…" her voice trailed off, and she seemed to be remembering something very important to her, something very loved.

"I never understood it," Sango said softly, drawing Kikyo's attention back to the here and now. "I never understood why you killed him, why you couldn't just trust him enough to know it wasn't he who hurt you…"

"If I am correct, you tried to do the same to him," Kikyo returned.

"I knew not who he was, nor did I ever fall in love with him…" Sango sighed. "I have my heart set on someone else…"

"You mean that smoking corpse by the well?" Kikyo sneered. "I'll toss his bones in for you; a fitting burial, don't you agree, to be thrown down the chute like the perverted trash he was? When I go back to Hell, I'll tell him you send your regards. But, you'll be joining him soon. When I come back, I expect to find you here, waiting." Sango shuddered, tears flowing down her cheeks.

"N-no…He can't be…You couldn't have…"

"I can purify anything, Sango of the Taijiya. Don't worry; I'll reunite you two before nightfall. After all, I need to take my revenge against the village that gave me all my problems…that gave me the Shikon No Tama to purify and protect…Your people took away my life, and in my death I'll kill their only survivor… The last of the Taijiya…and then, with Inuyasha at my side, Naraku. But right now, I have to kill my reincarnation and get my soul back; Sayonara."

A/N: Hope you liked it! Now it's _really going! _ TELL ME ABOU YOUR NEW YEARS' RESOLUTIONS! I AM HAVING TROUBLE THINKING OF ANY! PLEASE REVIEW SOME MORE! I LOVE YOU ALL! Go to and go to Korikistune's author name and read his stories! They are actually pretty good…It's shocking…Plus, he is my best friend and, as friends, I must promote him. He did it for me, anyway. REPAY HIS KINDNESS! See you in Chapter 4. Happy New Year!


	4. Chapter 4

Carol Of The Bells

By AriznGlori

A/N: Ok, this update took far too long. It's just that this is such an important chapter, and took me forever to word properly. (Ok, I'm just lazy, but NyaaaH!)

Disclaimer: Do I really need to say this?

Chapter 4: Osoroshii Hikari

Inuyasha was roughly shoved into the back seat of the police car, along with a very worked-up Kagome. She was shoved in after him, and so Inuyasha wound up on the right side of the back seat, and Kagome on the left. The girl was not being very calm.

"I hate you, Inuyasha! What on _earth _convinced you to do something so frickin' stupid!" She glared at him with eyes that could have shattered the chains of Hell (it's not like she hasn't done it before). "Well?"

Inuyasha turned his face away from her, couldn't look her in the eyes. "Answer me, you dumb hanyou!" Suddenly he turned around, a fiery anger burning him, and he raged worse than Kagome.

"Don't you _ever _call me STUPID!" he roared before sitting down and sulking bitterly. Kagome snorted, unimpressed.

"Just because you're a teensy bit mad doesn't give you the right" But Inuyasha cut her off, interjecting "YOU DID THIS TO ME!"

Kagome blinked in surprise. "Huh?" Her expression softened as she tried to comprehend. "D-did what? Yell?" She leaned over to him, closer to Inuyasha, concern flooding her. "Inuyasha, what are you talking about?"

"N-nothing," Inuyasha murmured, shifting away so she wouldn't see his blush. "Sit down; you're invading my personal space…" Kagome frowned disappointedly, and looked away.

"Fine, be a jack-ass; not that it makes much of a difference for someone as pig-headed as you…" She gazed sadly out the window at the shrine as the police came back and entered the car, starting up the engine. Just then the little dashboard police intercom system turned on, a voice fogged by static coming over the speaker.

"HOY SHIT! WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT!"

"I'd sit you if it wouldn't blow up the car; you know that, right?" Kagome remarked depressingly as the car took off down the street.

"W-we're moving?" Inuyasha looked out the window, his face tinged green. "Oh…Kami-sama, save my stomach…" Kagome sweat-dropped, and said timidly, "Umm, officers?"

Hark! How the bells, sweet silver bells,

All seem to say, "Throw cares away!"

Souta walked back toward the house as the car disappeared down the street, a gloomy atmosphere tainting all the Christmas decorations that were set up. "Oh man, Kagome is _way _grounded…"

A low rumbling interrupted his short, slow walk. "Huh?" He could feel it; the waves of dark movement beneath his feet. _I-it is like standing over an airplane engine… _he thought suddenly.

The boy looked at the Goshimboku tree, towering and impressive even far across the temple grounds. Its branches were shuddering ominously, layers of snow shaken down upon its great roots in a silver cloud. "Is Santa Claus flying a little low this year…?" Souta looked up at the gray sky habitually, but then a thought struck him; thoughts usually never struck him, so he knew this was important.

"Hey, wait! Christmas isn't for two days!" But it didn't make a difference what day it was now. The ground thundered a low growling as in the chest of a wolf, as if it was groaning from the great weight of the city that it held up.

"I-it's an earthquake!" Souta cried, looking around. From the street, the sounds of people screaming and cars slowing shocked him. The buildings rocked as if gently blown in a breeze, scaring him.

Buyo ran past the boy, meowing loudly, streaking out of the well-house in unnatural bounds. Souta looked over to the building. Dark streaks of static shocks flowed from beneath the doors, and the gray sky darkened quickly, as if night decided to descend a little earlier than usual…

Christmas is here, bringing good cheer,

To young and old, meek and the bold!

Kikyo was entranced from the moment she entered Time; the beauty of the skies she soared through, the sensation of weightlessness; it was a pleasure in itself, a luxury for the gods. And she, Kikyo, was partaking of the joys of flight. Yet all too soon, she found herself in the well again. She looked around.

"Did it work?"

Suddenly, the ground beneath her started rumbling, the stone and dirt shaft of the well started crumbling, and the square patch of bone-filled earth she stood upon rose up the well, bursting out of the binding posts that helped it retain its shape for well over five hundred years. Lightning was flowing out of the ground, and a great power filled Kikyo, satisfying her like nothing else could, not like food or the souls of young women that kept her flesh together.

She knew this was what she should have done a long time ago.

Ding dong ding-dong, that is their song,

Ring joyful ring, all caroling!

"Souta!" Mrs. Higurashi came running from the other side of the temple grounds, snow shovel in hands. She knelt down as she reached him, dropping the snow shovel and pulling him close in motherly affection. "Oh, thank Kami-sama you're unhurt! I heard the sirens and thought something terrible had happened!"

Souta clutched to his mother in fear, Kagome and—well, mostly Inuyasha, flashing through his mind. "Well, something did…" he spoke uneasily, fearful of his mother's reaction. Mrs. Higurashi looked him in the eyes, concern crossing her face. "Grandpa had a heart attack?"

"Ye—I mean NO! No, nothing along _those _lines… although Kagome might kill Inuyasha, but… Grandpa is…Grandpa is…well, frankly I don't know where Grandpa is, but I know that he is alive and…alive."

"That's good. Although, all this-" she gestured at the ominous sky, the shivering tree, and the black lightning coming out of the hut of the Bone-eater's Well- "has something to do with your sister; right?"

"I think that-" but Souta was interrupted the well-house exploding, the lightning meeting the sky, and ground making one final lurch, before, in the remains of the well-house, a lone woman appeared, laughing maniacally. "Kagome's in trouble," Souta finished, looking over at the ash-covered woman nervously.

"That's nice, Souta... Wanna make a break for it before she sees us?" Mrs. Higurashi whispered, glancing at the woman quickly.

"Sure. I call the foyer closet."

"Alright then, on the count of-" But Souta was already halfway there. "Hey, wait!" Mrs. Higurashi yelled before she could stop herself. "Souta!"

Kikyo turned her eyes over in their direction, and a sudden smile of pure joy played on her lips. "Why, if it isn't my mother, come back from the dead! Oh, now I've been meaning to talk to her…Mother!"

She walked silently over to Mrs. Higurashi, who was getting up to go and catch up with her son; Kikyo put an icy hand on her shoulder. Mrs. Higurashi looked up into the sad brown eyes of the girl.

"K-Kagome? Darling, it was you?" Mrs. Higurashi stood up, unaware that she was looking at a dead woman with murder on her mind. _This all can't possibly be Kagome's fault, can it?_

"Mother, don't you know me?" Kikyo asked, puzzled. _Who is this woman? She looks exactly like my own mother…But she's calling me KAGOME?_

"Kagome, you look very different. Are you okay? Your voice sounds funny; do you have a sore throat?" Kikyo choked back tears as she looked at this woman, realizing her mistake, and she was greatly saddened.

"You don't know me," she whispered, a frown crossing her face, marring her features. Mrs. Higurashi realized that this person was far different from whom she thought she was addressing. "You aren't my mother…You are her reincarnation, aren't you?"

"Oh, so _you're _Kikyo!" Mrs. Higurashi said angrily. "How long I have wanted to speak with you. Follow me to the house; we have a _lot _to discuss…" Kikyo gulped. She remembered her own mother acting this way before several demons met their end…

"A-alright…" A frightened Kikyo was led away into the snow storm, disappearing in the direction of the Higurashi abode, where dark times waited for her. _So Kagome does live in Hell…_

One seems to hear, words of good cheer,

From everywhere, filling the air!

Kagome was staring at Inuyasha and, needless to say (but I'll say it anyway to take up some space), he didn't like it at all. Angrily, he looked over at her and yelled "WHAT?", but she continued to look at him like an ameba under a microscope until she gasped and pointed angrily at his face with both hands (the handcuffs, people!). "I knew it!"

"Knew what? That I'm better-looking than you?"

"Only to a tranny," Kagome tossed her hair in a stuck-up manner, also using both hands, and then returned to her new favorite activity: glaring at Inuyasha just to make him pissed off. "Anyways, you've got lipstick on your cheek; apparently you did a little more than rob a store…Pervert."

"What do you care? You _hate _me!" Inuyasha yelled sarcastically, rolling his eyes and looking out the window on his side of the car. The city was hard to see through the snow, but he didn't care; better than looking at a bitch.

"So what? Doesn't mean I can't be nosy…" Kagome pointed out with a satisfied smile of victory. "Besides, if you hate someone, it's your job to annoy them to death."

"Y-you're going to kill me?" Inuyasha asked, genuinely horrified.

One officer picked up the radio: "Car 157 to base, car 157 to base; we have a murder in progress in the back seat…"

"Shut up!" Kagome yelled angrily. "No murders _yet_! Wait a while, why don't you?" The officers laughed at her, and hung up the radio.

"Calm down, princess," said one.

"Yeah," said the other. "Don't get your hair in a knot! Hahaha!"

"I hate dumb jokes!" Inuyasha roared angrily. "Shut up and leave her alone! If anyone gets to piss off and criticize Kagome, it's me!"

"I really feel like I've got a knight in shining armor…" Kagome said ironically. "Unfortunately, you're not him, Inuyasha."

"Yeah, it's Hobo…" the hanyou muttered, a hint of envy in his voice.

"His name is _Hojo, _and no, he's not my boyfriend. He wants to be, but I don't."

"You don't want to be his boyfriend?" Inuyasha asked, confused.

"You know what I _mean_, Inuyasha!" Kagome growled. "Don't screw with me; it's not the right day to do this if you'd like to escape going to the Vet and getting your _balls_ cut off." The hanyou then proceeded to shut up and look out the window again.

"Damn wench…"

Oh, how they pound, raising the sound,

O'er hill and dale, telling their tale!

"Shippo!" Sango bellowed. "SHIPPO! Where are you?" Her voice echoed on into the snow-bound forest, and her call was answered by the sudden flight of several birds. She waited, listening for any noise, but there was nothing. She would remain pinned to the back of the Goshimboku until someone came upon her. She bowed her head in defeat, and cried freely for the first time.

"S-Sango?" a small, childish voice asked. "A-are you okay? Don't cry, Sango!" Shippo bounded out of the forest at her, and leapt upon the girl, hugging her as best he could.

"Shippo? Shippo, you came!" Sango was overjoyed. She looked seriously at the fox tyke who was pretending to be a stud right now. "Quickly, can you get Hiraikotsu off of me? I'm having trouble breathing." Shippo saw the seriousness in her face, and quickly nodded.

He turned into a small, cartoon-like ladybug, crawled into the small space between the giant boomerang and the tree-trunk. Gradually, he morphed into different forms, steadily increasing in size, and steadily pushing part of the boomerang out of the tree. When he was finished with his efforts, he was gasping, and collapsed down to the ground, muttering. "I am _so_ done for the day…"

"Thanks Shippo," Sango said gratefully, inhaling lots of air and exhaling it joyfully. "Quickly! We have to get to Miroku!"

"What…? Waaah!" Shippo screamed as Sango grabbed him by the tail and took off, running to the well. "OWOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOW!" Sango dropped him unceremoniously as she reached the well and saw Miroku, still laying there, steaming like a vegetable. She ran over to him, rolled him over on his back.

"Miroku! Miroku, are you okay?" Sango cried; she felt his neck for a pulse, and sighed in relief. "Kami-sama be praised! He's still alive!"

Gaily they ring, while people sing,

Songs of good cheer, Christmas is here!

"Kikyo, please sit down," Mrs. Higurashi gestured coldly at the sofa in the living room. Kikyo just stared at it.

"It's not going to eat me, is it?"

"Only if you try anything that could hurt anyone. It gets very… protective sometimes…" Kikyo then sat on the floor.

"That won't save you," Mrs. Higurashi said. "It hasn't charged at anyone in a long time, but that doesn't mean that it's docile now."

"Now I know you're lying to me," Kikyo muttered. "I don't like it."

"I don't like the fact that you're getting in the way of Inuyasha and Kagome…" Mrs. Higurashi glowered. "I think that's unfair; you can't have him. You're dead."

"I came here to fix that," Kikyo replied simply. "Now, if you'll excuse me," she said, standing up to leave. Mrs. Higurashi blocked her way. "I'm sorry, but you can't go and hurt my baby."

"Move!" Kikyo roared angrily. "You're a liar, and evil! BURN!" She grabbed the older woman, purified her, threw her on the couch and left.

"That stupid woman shouldn't have gotten in my way…" Kikyo murmured almost regretfully as she left the house, walking out into the snow storm. "At least the sky isn't black anymore…" Kikyo looked around for the first time since she arrived. "Such a huge city. Where could Kagome be?"

She walked over to the stairs that led down to street-level, and strolled calmly down them, following the sidewalk in the direction that she felt Kagome more. _She's moving at and incredible rate of speed…It's not natural…She must be with Inuyasha! _"Kagome, I'm going to get my soul back no matter how hard you try to keep them from me. And then Inuyasha _will _be mine!"

Merry, merry, merry, merry Christmas!

Merry, merry, merry, merry Christmas!

"_Where_ are we, again?" Inuyasha asked, glancing sideways at Kagome as the girl was taken from the car by a police officer.

"We're at the police station," Kagome said in depression. "This means I'll have to call mom and tell her I'm in jail…Why me, Kami-sama, why me!"

"What's so bad about jail?" Inuyasha asked in curiosity, glancing at Kagome. She looked back at him, sighing. "It'll be a lot worse for you, believe me. What with your looks and a bunch of guys locked behind bars with no girls, what do you think?"

"Umm, I'll kick some ass?"

"Sure you will… But all I have to do is say sit and-" The hanyou fell to the ground painfully. "OUCH!"

"Get up, you pussy," one officer yelled kicking the boy in the side. "You're a thief. Now let's get you to the cell; some inmates will become very good 'butties' with you. Hahaha!" Kagome sighed, looking away.

"We are so screwed."

"Kagome, what are you complaining about? I'm the one with the crooks who swing both ways…" Just then, Yuka, Eri, and Ayame came walking down the street, giggling and talking to each other, when Ayame pointed and waved. "Hi Kagome! What brings you down here so late?"

"We're Christmas shopping; a little late again. You wanna come, Kagome?" Yuka giggled. But then, Eri pointed at Kagome's handcuffs.

"Kagome! You've been _arrested?_" Eri walked up to Inuyasha and scowled in his face. "So he's the two-timer, eh?"

"_Two-timer?_" Inuyasha growled, glaring at Kagome. "I think I deserve some _answers_, Kagome."

"All their ideas! Not mine!"

On now they send, on without end,

Their joyful tone, to every home!

"Miroku? Can you hear me?" Sango asked as the monk groaned.

"Mm? Sango…dear Sango, what's happened to me? I feel so _different…_"

"'Different' how?" Sango asked warily, shifting away from the monk. "You don't want to do…anything perverted…do you?"

"No."

"WHAT?"

"I don't want to do anything perverted."

"Shippo, did you hear that?" Sango looked over at the kitsune, but he had already passed out.

End Of Chapter 4

A/N: Whoo…all in one day…but hey, who cares? I've updated! Yay! See you all later.


	5. Chapter 5

Carol Of The Bells

By AriznGlori

A/N: SEE THE RING 2! Yes, this is chapter _numero__ cinco_, or _number five_, or _suuji go_ in Japanese. Yes, last chapter I was a bit hyper (bouncing off the walls- eheheheh /scratches back of neck nervously/) so I expected the last chapter was a bit…fast…lol. Anyways, I love all the reviews you all give me. I read every single one because it makes me happy…yes, I have no life.

Disclaimer: Who said anything about a _disclaimer?_

Toshi Tsuiseki

Kikyo walked down the wide sidewalk of the city street, descending down a hill that, five hundred years prior, was tree-laden and silent. Now, it was busy, loud, and the air was polluted. She was disgusted to her core.

"The architecture is foreign and oppressive," she whispered in shock; "some form from the mainland, maybe. And yet…" she looked ahead of her, at the tall buildings of steel and glass that pierced the iron sky. "I feel an inorganic power here." Just then a car zoomed by, and the miko jumped four feet in the air. "AH!"

The priestess found herself clutching an iron post, shuddering in fear; she was getting unfriendly stares from the strangely dressed passerby. "W-what are you all staring at?" she demanded angrily; the stares stopped as people hurried on their way.

"Goodness; you'd think they've never seen a miko before…" Getting off the pole, she made a show of fixing herself, walking with a dignified air down the street again.

After a while of walking along, looking around, she passed by a store full of mannequins in frilly and brightly-colored under-garments. "Ooh," Kikyo said wonderingly, looking at the store with interest. She raised her eyes to the name of the store. "'Victoria's Secret'? It is definitely a foreign place." Kikyo looked longingly at the bras. "Ah…" She looked down at her sagging chest. "Oh man…"

Sighing in feigned resolution, she walked in through the doors of the store, which would be thrown into utter chaos that day.

Hark, how the bells, sweet silver bells,

All seem to say, "Throw cares away!"

"Inuyasha, meet Ayame, Yuka, and Eri; they are my three best friends," Kagome said with a nervous smile. But Inuyasha and the three girls just glared at each other, lightning sparks erupting from their eyes. "I'm not a two-timer," he hissed.

"That's not what Kagome said," Ayame pointed out angrily. Inuyasha growled threateningly in response, giving the girl an uneasy feeling. _Is this guy human? _Of course, she had no way of knowing, and, oddly enough, nobody took into account his ears so far… until Eri decided to point them out, that is.

"Oh, what _cute_ ears! The name's Inuyasha, right? Where'd you get them?" She reached up to touch them, much to the hanyou's anger and embarrassment.

"Uhhh…I forget?" Inuyasha answered lamely. He really had no idea what to expect; Kagome's mother accepted them easily enough…

"Ah, it was probably EBay, right? Everything cool is on sale on EBay... They're so soft; I want some," Eri answered ruefully. "Now back to the glaring…"

"Everybody seems to want to glare at me today for some reason…" Inuyasha murmured, feeling like he was in the shit-hole. His ears drooped, and all present, police included, stared wide-eyed. Kagome sweat-dropped, thinking nervously, _Oh Kami Oh Kami Oh Kami Oh Kami Oh Kami Oh Kami… _

"That was cool! Do it again!" Yuka grinned, sipping a hot cocoa that nobody previously noticed. Ayame looked over at her and murmured "When did we go for hot chocolate?" Eri shrugged in response. Yuka was, however, blissfully unaware of the shift in focus from Inuyasha to herself.

"Typical Yuka…" Kagome remarked. Unfortunately, now the attention was on her. She sweat-dropped again. "_What?_"

"Um…_ why are you arrested and being taken into the police station two days before Christmas? _I mean, just shop, don't steal; you can get gifts for everyone," Eri replied. Kagome looked at her like she was nuts.

"Huh? What do you think I _did?_"

"Err… Didn't you shoplift to get everyone presents for Christmas? Like, if you didn't have enough money before-hand to buy us all stuff?" Kagome still stared at her blankly. Eri started to get a tick above her eyebrow. "You didn't shoplift for us, did you?" It was more of a statement than a question, but Kagome nodded anyways. _They don't think that they're that high on my priority list right now, are they? No, I guess not…_

"Err, okay… I didn't shoplift one thi- well, then again" She glanced at the officers, who frowned at her. "—no, nothing," Kagome finished quickly, positively a nervous wreck right now. "Eheheh?"

Ayame raised one eyebrow at her response. "'Eheheh?'" The others stared at the girl, Inuyasha's jaw on the pavement as he stared in sock at Kagome. _Kagome…lied? BLATANTLY? In front of these strange samurai people? Is she nutty? _

Christmas is here, bringing good cheer,

To young and old, meek and the bold!—

"Um, Shippo? Are you okay?" Sango glanced over at the kitsune.

"I believe he is unwell," Miroku said seriously. "We must get him to the hut of Kaede; she'll know what to do." Miroku made a move to go get the kitsune, but Sango stopped him.

"I'll get him," the taijiya said. "You are also unwell, and it will hardly do to have you collapse halfway there due to exhaustion." Actually, Sango was going to test Miroku… She walked over to the kitsune, bending down to pick him up, exposing her butt to Miroku's reach purposefully. She managed to pick up the fox tyke without a grope, and she nearly had a heart-attack. In a fit of anger, she turned around and glared at the monk.

"How dare you!" Sango screeched. "Do you want to kill me!"

"Uh, what did I do to hurt you, Lady Sango?" Miroku asked in a slightly nervous tone. "Did I offend you?"

Sango blinked suddenly, realizing what she was just getting at, and she flushed clearly. "N-no, Miroku-sama," she whispered. "I was just…testing you…You passed, for the first time."

"Oh, Lady Sango, I get it! You were trying to test me to see if I would grope you." Miroku smiled, but it wasn't a smile of the perverted kind; it was a smile of simple understanding, and Sango was shocked to see the difference. Miroku's smile made something inside her flutter wildly, and she blushed all the more.

"Did you perform this test on me a lot, Lady Sango?" Miroku asked, getting up and going over to take Shippo from her arms. Sango bowed her head in embarrassment.

"Yes, and you failed every time…"

"You did the test for your own pleasure, didn't you?"

"…." Sango didn't answer.

"You used me for… for…?" Miroku sputtered in shock. He couldn't get the words out.

"H-hey, I never s-said anything!" Sango protested, stuttering a bit. "Q-quit jumping to conc-clusions, Miroku!"

Ding dong ding-dong, that is their song,

Ring, joyful ring! All caroling!

Kikyo walked out of the now-destroyed Victoria's Secret, carrying bag after bag of under-garments while people on the sidewalks ran screaming. The priestess was blissfully unaware, for now she was enjoying her first bra. _Support feels good…_

Eventually, she wandered into a street where no one knew she just obliterated a lingerie-store; people paid her no mind as she waltzed down the sidewalk, unless it was for her odd clothes. Soon enough, Kikyo noticed.

_Hmm…I must look very different from everyone else…Of course; I should have realized that they're all in black cloaks and talking on shiny beeping things. If I'm ever to find Kagome and get my soul back, I might as well find some clothes to blend in…_

Kikyo, being the under-handed evil bitch conveniently portrayed here, realized that she could just jump someone and take _their _clothes, rather than risking as much notice as she did for robbing Victoria's Secret just now. She went into an alley, and watched the crowds of people walk by, waiting until she found someone who had a body-type very much similar to her own.

Unfortunately, she did see one, a business-woman walked by, chattering in a language she did not understand, but heard other speaking; 'Ringish,' or something like it. The woman took no notice of the priestess in the alley, at least not until the miko grabbed her off of the sidewalk, covered her mouth, and purified her on the spot. The priestess then proceeded to switch their outfits behind a large stack of crates.

When Kikyo slipped onto the sidewalk in a stylish business coat, form-fitting black pants, shining black high-heels, pink scarf and Matrix-like sunglasses, nobody noticed the dead girl, lying behind the crates in clothing five hundred years out-of-date.

One seems to hear, words of good cheer,

From everywhere, filling the air!—

"Kagome, you're a card, alright," Yuka sighed sarcastically. She then proceeded to slurp some more on her hot cocoa, Eri and Ayame still trying to figure out where it came from.

"D-does that mean…that you think that I'm…skinny?" Kagome asked hopefully, even though she already thought she knew the answer.

"Yes, and no," the girl responded. "You're thin, but that's not what I meant." The police officers glanced at their watches, sighing.

"We'd better get you two to a cell," one said, going to grab Inuyasha's cuffs and take him inside.

"Yeah," replied the other, going for Kagome. "Wait until you get to call your parents. Ha! Ha! Ha!" But Inuyasha had had enough with the two for the day, much to Kagome's mixed-relief and horror.

The demon broke his handcuffs easily, tearing the remnants of the metal band off his wrist, which made life a lot easier; he could now go and fight with these two pussy-cops like he wanted to.

Timely enough, the officer going for Kagome pulled out a pistol, aiming at Inuyasha. "Freeze, freak!" The officer was trying to look tough, but Inuyasha was unimpressed. He walked right up to the officer, until the gun was over his chest, but not his heart; the hanyou had played enough violent video-games with Souta when Kagome was busy to understand what could happen.

"Go ahead; pull the trigger," Inuyasha hissed. Ayame, Eri, Yuka, and Kagome stared open-mouthed, as well as the other officer, who then fainted in fear. The hanyou snorted.

"Guns are so over-rated; now claws" the hanyou showed them to the officer—"are so much better. They allow for better control, and long-distance attacks. See?" He slashed at the length of the gun, and it fell in five even chunks of neatly-cut metal. The officer fainted at well.

"Oh, you are so in trouble," Ayame, Eri, and Yuka said at once. Inuyasha turned his harsh golden gaze upon them, and his claws flashed in the meager winter light. "Wanna a piece of me?"

"If Kagome doesn't mind," Ayame winked. Inuyasha blushed, and Kagome's ears proceeded to spew steam.

"Inuyasha," her voice, low and deadly, sounded. The dog-boy gulped. "SIT! YOU TWO-TIMER!" SLAM! Right on top of those annoying officers… Eri gaped at Kagome.

"M-magic…? Spells?" Eri, Ayame and Yuka looked at each other in fearful realization. "KAGOME'S A WITCH!" They ran away in fear, disappearing down the near-deserted sidewalk, rounding a corner, nearly barreling Kikyo over in the process as the miko drew up closer to her prey.

Kagome muttered to herself feverishly. "I'm so dead…" Sighing, she knelt down, and helped the hanyou up. He murmured angrily at her nonetheless. "Aren't you supposed to hate me?"

"I thought us girls had selective hearing, but this is ridiculous!" Kagome cried. "We'll discuss this later; right now we need to get _you_ back to your own time. Things have been screwed up here as it is!"

"Are you mad at me?"

"If fat, butt-faced monsters are waltzing around this city, preying on innocents and stealing lingerie while hunting a crazed half-demon and his soul-stealing friend while eating sushi through their rectum, then no, I'm not!" Just then, Kikyo walked around the corner, eating sushi off a plate she stole from a passerby's bag. Kagome stared.

"It seems that I spoke too soon… Inuyasha, I'm still PO'd, so you're not off the hook yet." Kikyo glowered at her reincarnation angrily; she was dead, not deaf.

"Would it help if I…err… aided in our mutual escape?" Inuyasha asked, noticing the dark flash in Kikyo's eyes. He was very afraid when the gaze turned on him, and the miko's palms started glowing bluish-white, her teeth grinding together maliciously...

"It might help a bit…" Kagome said in a nervous manner, but Kikyo was already conjuring her soul collectors. They materialized in their ghostly, serpentine forms, things so unworldly compared to the modern cityscape they were now in.

Inuyasha grabbed Kagome around the waist and dashed into the police station, which had surprisingly few people, most likely due to people like Kagome shop-lifting… Inuyasha dashed through the offices, looking for a place to exit.

"Doesn't this place have any windows!" he growled anxiously at realizing that all the light was provided by the ceiling. Kagome looked up at him from her cradled position, and pointed towards a sign in a hallway directing the way towards the stairs.

"Kikyo can't fly, so let's get to the roof."

The said-priestess was right on the two's tail, purifying all who were present. Men and women fell to the ground left and right, and a few aware officers pulled out their guns and shot at the priestess; however, the bullets ricocheted off of the girl's shield of soul-collectors, the demons unaffected because of their lifeless qualities, returning to their deliverers, bringing death to all they hit.

It was a massacre the likes of modern Tokyo had never seen. Furniture was shattered, hitting more people; blood was sprayed upon the walls, and papers and telephones and all sorts of office-equipment went flying. Kagome and Inuyasha were barely able to keep ahead of the rampaging priestess on a mission.

Inuyasha, still carrying Kagome, was dashing up the stairs to the roof, turn after turn after turn up the very tall building. Kikyo had burst into the stairs not long after them and used her soul collectors, who had just stocked her up with the souls of all the young girls she just killed, to lift her up, and she was soon gliding over the stairs at a rate even Inuyasha couldn't match.

The hanyou knew it; he would never get to the roof in time. He changed course and ran into a different floor, the one where all the emergency-calls were handled.

Oh, how they pound, raising the sound,

O'er hill and dale, telling their tale!—

"We're very lucky to be alive," Miroku concluded his story, looking across the small hut's central fire pit to Kaede. The old woman sighed shakily.

"It is as I dreaded," she replied sadly. "I fear now, more than ever, for Lady Kagome's safety. It appears blatantly before us that Inuyasha isn't the only one besides her that can manipulate the magical properties of the well."

"I don't know," Sango said, pulling out a copy of Alice in Wonderland. "It clearly describes a well-like rabbit-hole in a tree in here, also manipulated by a little girl and an animal-like creature, except it was all a dream. I read the whole thing, but I have no idea what a seal is; or a queen of hearts. Or an Alice even."

"I have a sudden urge to sing 'The Old Grand-duke of York'," Shippo stated, now awake from his shock-induced slumber. "Or hum the Harry Potter theme song, but I'm not sure." The kitsune pulled out a small nursery-rhyme book and a tape player. "I think it's sort of weird that she gave me some cry-baby songs for Christmas… It's supposed to be a really important holiday or something; Hanukkah too. I think it's just winter though."

"Well," said Miroku briskly, "I think celebrating in the winter is silly; quite a waste of food, if you ask me."

"They have KFC, so it can't be all that bad," Shippo pointed out. "Remember when she brought that over?"

"Who could forget?" Kaede sighed happily. "It was the best chicken ever; maybe better than the one I was preparing when INUYASHA STOLE IT!" The woman's outburst was sudden and fiery, and Shippo was gone in less than a second, screaming about not wanting to get booted out of the tree.

Gaily they ring, while people sing,

Songs of good cheer, Christmas is here!—

"Mom?" Souta popped out from the foyer closet, looking around. "Mom, where are you?" He crawled along the stairwell, looking towards the entrance to the living room. It was very quiet, and not a thing moved. As he crawled across the matted floor of the narrow hallway, he could feel his blood pounding in his wrists, and beads of sweat leaking down his face.

"Mom?" His chest was shuddering with his fearful breaths; every time he exhaled, he swore that he could feel his body rock the floor. Was he quiet enough? Was that crazed Kagome-copy still in the house, waiting for him? He was too frightened to want and find out.

"Are you in the living room?" he asked the silent air. There was no answer. His skin was flowing in different spots from hot to cold, and his palms were sweating. He peeked into to the living room, and saw Mrs. Higurashi lying there, eyes closed.

Souta was now shivering in an unimaginable terror. _Was she dead?_ He couldn't tell, and he was too scared to go check; he had to get to the phone. He had to call the police.

The phone was in the kitchen, which wasn't too far from where he was. But was Kikyo in the kitchen? He had no way of knowing, and yet he had no choice. Souta got up slowly into a crouched position, thanking Kami that the floor didn't creak beneath him. Then, he moved as fast as he could towards the kitchen.

Grabbing the phone off the jack, he broke down, crying, cowering in a corner with the phone, shuddering. His fingers shook badly as he dialed the police station; he didn't know what to do to calm down. Somehow, some way, he made his fingers work, and pressed the buttons carefully, forcing himself to take deep breaths. He held the phone up to his ear, and listened as it rang.

Merry, merry, merry, merry Christmas!

Merry, merry, merry, merry Christmas!—

Kagome and Inuyasha waited, hiding under a large desk of a vacant cubicle, listening as the few remaining people in the floor fled or fell to the wrath of Kikyo. The women and men who usually took the emergency calls were gone, and phones rang off the hook, unanswered. Kagome shuddered quietly, whispering "Oh Kami, how did this happen?"

Inuyasha's ears drooped again. He knew that this was his entire fault; now, people all over were dying… Right above them, the emergency-phone rang loudly, causing the hanyou to hiss and cover his ears. Kagome glanced up too. Inuyasha could see the yearning for her to use the phone, however it was used to save people...

Instead, she waited silently, her eyes telling the story of the guilt behind them. How she wanted to pick up that phone; but Kikyo was nearby. Inuyasha lightly elbowed Kagome and nodded in the priestess's direction, roughly a booth or two over. The phone still rang. Kagome had had it.

Before the hanyou could even realize, the girl had managed to get the phone, and was hurriedly whispering into it in her lowest voice.

"Police. What's wrong?" The girl listened to the light sobbing on the other end, strangely familiar.

"H-hello, my n-n-name's Souta H-Higuras" But before the boy could get the words out, Kagome shouted "Souta!" Unfortunately, Kikyo heard the high-pitched, joyous squeal of the girl, and was working on figuring a way through the office cubicles to get to the voice source; she could sense Kagome was extremely close.

"K-Kagome! Is that you?" the boy on the other end wept loudly. "I-I'm so s-scared! T-this creepy version of you c-came out of the well, and"

"I know; she's in the police station right now, hunting us down. Inuyasha and I are hiding under a desk in a cubicle," Kagome whispered back, looking at Inuyasha's frantic warning signs, many involving running a finger horizontally across his neck and the middle finger.

"She is? When she was here, she hurt mom!"

"W-what?" Kagome whispered in shock. "Is she alive?"

"I-I was too scared to check!"

"Feel her pulse; on her neck, okay? It's a little more accura- oh, what am I saying? Who cares if it's timely as long as it's there?"

"Okay sis, I'll check…I-I'm sorry I wouldn't play Uno with you," the boy apologized sadly.

"Forget that; is mom okay?"

"I-I'm checking; hey! S" Then, it ended; the phone died. Kagome frowned impatiently. "Dammit…" She yanked on the phone cord, and the phone's platform fell off the desk with a loud clatter, cut wires displayed.

It was only then that Kagome realized that Inuyasha cut them with his claws. How he deserved a royal sitting…

On, now they send! On, without end,

Their joyful tone, to every home!—

"Well, maybe we can use it," Sango said, gazing down the dark shape of the well's mouth. She couldn't see the bottom in the feeble winter sun, but she could tell that, if she jumped in, she could probably live. With a broken limb of course…

"Don't do it, Sango," Shippo begged. "It doesn't work; I was in it while getting attacked by that big ugly wolf-guy, and I couldn't get through. Kagome and Inuyasha can only get through because of the jewel shards, probably."

"But Inuyasha possesses no shards whatsoever, and he can leap through just as easily as Lady Kagome," Miroku pondered. "Maybe it also involves the bond created between them by the necklace that was bestowed upon him by Kaede."

"'Bestowed' is hardly descriptive," Shippo said dryly. "She practically strangled him to get them on, or so Kagome told me."

"Okay…Miroku, bye!" Sango said, pushing the baffled monk into the well. "A-A-A-I-I-I-I-E-E!" The monk landed with a thud. Sango and Shippo leaned over the rim of the well, peering in to see the damage they had done.

"He didn't make it through!" Sango hissed irritably. "He's just lying there, and" She gasped. The bottom of the well glowed briefly, and Miroku stared at the ground upon which he lay. The light, however, flickered and failed, and the shaft of the well was returned to darkness.

"He almost made it through," Shippo sighed. "Maybe it _is _because of the Shikon shards; and Miroku has three, so…"

"I don't think that's it," Sango frowned. "It could be just holy reasons; you know, like he can only get through because he's holy. Kikyo got through, and Kagome's her reincarnation, so that's most likely it."

"But how did Inuyasha get through?"

"The link with his prayer beads; his are bound by a potent spell; much stronger than the one that binds Miroku's hand, most likely. It could have a link that stands up to the powers of time…"

"Uh-huh…"

"I dunno… could it be strength? Kikyo and Inuyasha are strong, and Kagome's strong too…Wait! Does that make Miroku weak?"

"Let's throw him in again!"

"Okay! Miroku, get up here!"

"My back hurts," Miroku whined. "I wanna go home now!"

"You don't have a home! Get up here; Shippo and I wanna see if our other theories work!"

"Fine, I'll be right up…bitch…"

End Of Chapter 5

A/N: Probing into the depths of the well's secrets now… Why can't any besides Kikyo, Inuyasha, and Kagome work it? Tune in to find out! And what of Miroku's lack of perversion? What puzzlements will this have upon the plot? Who knows? Just keep reviewing! POLL:

HAVE YOU SEEN THE RING (1 or 2)? DID YOU ENJOY IT? I ENJOYED BOTH OF THEM!


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